Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to an apparatus and method for controlling a grill of a speaker in a vehicle, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for controlling a speaker grill in accordance with an in-vehicle environment and an operating state.
Discussion of the Related Art
Multimedia systems installed in a vehicle can implement various systems, such as an audio system, a car stereo system, a navigation system, or the like, by outputting audio through a speaker. The speaker may include a unit for playing sound that is divided into several units including, for example, a low/high pitched sound unit (2-way) for playing low-pitched sound and high-pitched sound on full band, a low/middle/high pitched sound unit (3-way) for playing low-pitched sound, middle-pitched sound and high-pithed sound, a 4-way unit for playing low-pitched sound, middle-pitched sound, high-pitched sound and ultrahigh-pitched sound, etc. In luxury vehicles, a speaker may be disposed at a specific location and set to be responsible for a specific frequency band in order to output frequency on low/middle/high-pitched sound band. For instance, a tweeter (high-pitched sound) speaker can be installed as a speaker of a vehicle and midrange (middle-pitched and low-pitched sound) speakers can be installed as dashboard and door speakers.
Regarding a speaker for vehicle, unlike a general home speaker, a speaker is fixed to an interior space of the vehicle and a speaker grill, a nonwoven fabric, and the like are placed over the speaker (or, a part that can be reached by a vehicle user) to prevent dust or water from entering the speaker. In particular, a speaker is generally configured to be protected by a speaker grill. A multitude of holes are formed in the typical speaker grill to deliver audio or sound played by the speaker to an interior space of the vehicle. Such a nonwoven fabric or a speaker grill, however, may interrupt audio output performance.
Generally speaking, a speaker grill should be capable of delivering a sound quality of a speaker into a space while maintaining the original sound quality. In this regard, a thickness of a speaker grill, a size/pitch of holes therein, an opening ratio, and the like can be considered as factors that affect a speaker sound quality (i.e., performance). Hence, when a speaker grill is manufactured, an opening ratio can be improved by reducing a thickness of a speaker grill to the maximum and decreasing a size and/or a pitch of a hole therein.